In this episode of the /Filmcast, Dave, Devindra, and Adam ponder box office surprises from the past weekend, discuss the merits of a Facebook movie, and look back on the first season of the /Filmcast. Vic Holtreman joins us from Screenrant and Scott Weinberg joins us from Cinematical and Fearnet.

Have any questions, comments, concerns, feedback, or praise? Feel free to e-mail us at slashfilmcast@gmail.com or call and leave a voicemail at 781-583-1993. Tune in next week as we review Bangkok Dangerous.

This Week in DVD is a column that compiles all the latest info regarding new DVD releases, sales, and exclusive deals from stores including Target, Best Buy, Circuit City, and Fry’s.

HEROES (SEASON 2)
There’s no question about it, Volume 2 of Heroes offered a major decline in quality compared to the show’s kickass first season. Combining weak new characters (Maya & Alejandro spring to mind) and lackluster plot progressions (such as Sylar losing his powers), the series seemed to be losing its touch all too quickly. Luckily, creator Tim Kring and company took notice of all of the internet backlash, and the second half of the season managed to bring back the show’s A-game. It doesn’t make up for the dull, poorly written earlier episodes, but it’s at least enough to convince audiences to keep watching. Season 2 of the show offers 11 episodes.Blu-ray? Yes.Notable Extras: Commentaries with cast and crew, deleted scenes, NBC.com featurettes, a ‘Generations’ alternate ending, untold stories, 4 featurettes (‘A New Beginning’, ‘Takezo Kensei: Sword Saint’, ‘Inside The Alternate Ending of Generations’, ‘Genetics of a Scene’), Tim Sale gallery of screen art, and a Season 3 sneak peek.

ENTOURAGE (SEASON 4)
Entourage is a show I love without ever really feeling any deep connection to. Like Hollywood itself, it’s enjoyable to look at and admire but eventually you realize it’s all artificial glitz and glamour and not much actual depth. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though, because with characters like the hilarious asshole agent Ari Gold (played by Jeremy Piven), sometimes you just want to kick back, relax, and not have to think too much. Season 4 of the show offers 12 episodes.Blu-ray? No.Notable Extras: Commentary on select episodes, Medellín trailer, US Comedy Arts Festival Panel, and two featurettes (‘The Making of Medellín’, ‘Meet The Newest Member Of Entourage!’).

THE SHIELD (SEASON 6)
If you listen to the /Filmcast, you’re probably aware of the ongoing debate regarding The Shield’s greatness. While David and Devindra seem to think it’s one of the greatest shows next to The Wire and Battlestar Gallactica, I’ve been slowly and forcefully working my way through the first season with a constantly diminishing amount of interest. Does it get better as it goes on? Or am I just not seeing what everybody else seems to be? Season 6 of the show offers 10 episodes.Blu-ray? No.Notable Extras: Commentary on select episodes, 33 deleted scenes, and 3 featurettes (‘Saturn’s Sons’, ‘Two Directors’, ‘Full Circle: Franka Potente’).

REDBELT
A curious departure from the usual films he makes, writer/director David Mamet’s Redbelt is a martial arts film that follows a self-defense instructor who finds himself the victim of a con and is pressed to enter the ring for pride and profit. Critics have said the movie interweaves action and intelligence in a way that’s not always smooth but is effective overall. It currently holds a 71% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.2 on IMDB.Blu-ray? Yes.Notable Extras: Commentary with David Mamet and Randy Couture, 3 featurettes (‘Behind-the-Scenes of Redbelt’, ‘Inside Mixed Martial Arts’, ‘The Magic of Cyril Takayama’), a Q&A with Mamet, an interview with Dana White (President of the UFC), and Fighter Profiles.

THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (2-DISC COLLECTOR’S EDITION)
Anybody else suffering from Nightmare Before Christmas overload? It was bad enough when the Hot Topic crowd essentially crowned the film as its holy grail, but recently we’ve been having theatrical 3-D re-releases and video games and all sorts of crap. Don’t get me wrong; the film is one of my childhood favorites, and I love it dearly, but seriously now, let’s tone it down a bit.Blu-ray? Yes.Notable Extras: Commentary (with producer/writer Tim Burton, director Henry Selick and composer Danny Elfman), deleted scenes, a storyboard-to-film comparison, a Jack’s Haunted Mansion Holiday Tour, Burton’s original poem narrated by Christopher Lee, two featurettes, original trailers/posters, the complete short film Vincent, and a digital copy of the film.

WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS(Available as single-disc and 2-Disc Extended Jackpot Edition w/ digital copy)
Wacky hijinks ensue when two down on their luck people (a precise neat freak and a messy slacker – what a wacky combo!) get drunk together in Vegas and wake up the next morning married. How wacky! Things only get wackier from there when one of them wins 3 million dollars on a slot machine and they endure all sorts of wacky scenarios fighting over the money. It’s so wacky, the judge even sentences the pair to six months marriage. Good god that is some wacky stuff! Wacky wacky wacky!Blu-ray? Yes.Notable Extras: Extras on the 2-disc include a director commentary, deleted scenes, outtakes, trailers, and a digital copy of the film.

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS OSAMA BIN LADEN?
Morgan Spurlock’s ill-conceived and simple-minded look at the war on terror spends more time trying to make audiences laugh than educating them, and in the end his schtick overwhelms the film. If all you’re looking to do is chuckle at Spurlock’s antics though, it makes for a decent rental.Blu-ray? No.Notable Extras: Deleted interviews, an alternate ending, and ‘The Animated History of Afghanistan’.

POSTAL
Uwe Boll’s much talked about and debated (by Uwe Boll himself, mostly) new film is finally seeing the light of day after hilariously losing out on its theatrical release alongside Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Critics and audiences are in agreement, Postal is by far Boll’s best film yet. And with a 9% on Rotten Tomatoes and 3.6 on IMDB, that just goes to show you how bad his other films really are.Blu-ray? Yes.Notable Extras: A director commentary, deleted scenes, featurettes (‘Raging Bull’, ‘Verne Troyer as Indiana Jones’), and a free Postal 2 PC game.

Hope everyone is having a pleasant Saturday afternoon. Writing this latest Uwe Boll item poolside recalls the floater scene in Caddyshack, so let’s make it short and easy. Next weekend, Boll’s Postal, based on the “shocking” videogame, was set to open against Spielberg’s Indiana Jones, but its domestic theatrical roll-out has been greatly reduced from 1,500 screens to five (or less, depending on where you look). Slashfilm received a press release (is that Boll’s personal email? LOL.) in which Boll cites a conspiracy launched by exhibitors (the government?) to counter his film’s “infuriating” imagery, like that above. Keep in mind that a Dubbya doppleganger was just seen lacing joints with coke in Harold and Kumar 2, so Boll’s conspiracy claims are typically unfounded and shitrageous…

“Theatrical distributors are boycotting Postal because of its political content,” says Boll. “We were prepared to open on 1500 screens all across America on May 23rd. Any multiplex in the U.S. should have space for us, but they’re afraid. We have even tried to buy a few screens in New York and Los Angeles, and they won’t let us even rent the theaters! I urge independent exhibitors to contact us and book Postal! Audiences have been expecting the film and I don’t think exhibitors should censor what gets played in U.S. theaters.”

Postal boasts a few respectable names like Jason Reitman’s go-to man, J.K. Simmons, TKITH‘s Dave Foley and far less respectable names like Verne Troyer and Uwe Boll. Peter saw the flick a while ago and said it wasn’t Boll’s worst offender, which is sort of like saying, “Grandma had a good day today.” It’s pretty bad when Boll’s films don’t even flop anymore, they just crawl onto Slashfilm pre-release and cease. So, pay your quick condolences and then continue exploring Liberty City.

Liberty City’s Vlad and Niko are (predictably) not siked right now. That’s right, Slashfilm’s original, indefatigable voodoo child, Uwe Boll, recently confessed to Vulture that he’s the perfect manimal to helm Grand Theft Auto: The Movie. Moreover, Boll said he would choose to direct a “very brutal” $30 million adaptation that would absolutely destroy Michael Bay’s $150 million PG-13 version that exists, yep, only in Boll’s well-protected brain! As of 6 p.m. EST, Rockstar Games had suspiciously chosen not to comment on this non-rumor. Here’s Boll…

“Grand Theft Auto would be super interesting for me, and I think I would actually be the right guy to do it, because my movies are all bloody and violent and I don’t have a problem with action scenes. But look, they will go, in the end, with a Michael Bay or a Brett Ratner, and it will be a PG-13 movie made for $150 million. I think it would be better to make a $30 million, very hard, brutal movie without compromising, but I’m not optimistic.”

Well, I’m sure GTA x Boll becoming a reality will come down to the performance of Postal, Boll’s latest video game adaptation finally opening in the U.S. on May 23rd. Peter says it’s his “best” movie thus far, but not his, you know, Bolliest. However, in the film’s defense, Boll did admit to forcing tiny Postal co-star Verne Troyer into a suitcase….and then he closed it! WTFBoll!

“[Verne] said, “Don’t close the suitcase completely, please.” And we said, “Look, it will be quick,” and then we promised him we wouldn’t but then we closed it anyway. But we opened it right away.

And was he upset?

A little, but then he was okay.

As with all things Boll, it gets better. Save your talk about alternative fuels, world, because Boll wants to convert ubiquitous Internet fanboy hatred into terrible Boll cinema. What a concept! Specifically, Boll wants to turn you and me into bloodsucking zombie extras in his upcoming Wii-adaptation Zombie Massacre.

“I have the rights to [Wii game] Zombie Massacre, and maybe we should do that movie with all the gamers and Boll haters, and people who signed that petition anti-Boll, or pro-Boll, we all meet in a big, small city – somewhere in the Midwest. And we all shoot Zombie Massacre together; they all play zombies, and they’re there and can give me advice if they think they can do it better than me. …I could have the biggest movie ever, basically for free! Because they would definitely all be there.”

Ladies and gents, the Internet is Boll’s sandbox, littered with sharp obscenities, petitions, and gum. The only question that remains is…

Discuss: If Boll makes Zombie Massacre will you cuome? Oh, and well, should Rockstar Games allow Uwe Boll to make a GTA short film, advertisement or just turn him into a death-attracting avatar?

Uwe Boll may not be the most popular director out there today.
Uwe Boll might not be the most innovative director out there today.

But one thing you can not deny is that Uwe Boll is an absolute GENIUS!

Boll has announced his sinister plans to release Postal on May 23rd, going head to head against Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Boll has declared war against Steven Spielberg:

“On the Indiana Jones weekend – May 23 – we will go out and destroy Indiana Jones in the Box Office! We all know that Harrison Ford is older as my grandpa and his time is up – would Michael Moore say!”

“Spielberg gets sloppy. We saw that with War of the Worlds (why the fuck the older brother survived?) and also in parts of Jaws, E.T., Munich etc.! My performance in Postal as ‘Nazi Theme Park Owner’ outperforms easily Ben Kingsley in Schindler’s List!”

This move will likely have a HUGE impact on the Indy 4’s bottom line. I hear that Paramount is terrified and is already discussing options to move Indiana Jones to another date, to avoid competition from Boll’s latest masterpiece. </sarcasm>

Discuss: Can Steven Spielberg even hope to compete against Uwe Boll at the box office?

Uwe Boll is known for creating some of the worst movies of all time out of video game adaptations (Alone in the Dark, BloodRayne, House of the Dead). We now have a look at the first trailer for Boll’s latest: POSTAL.